The Heidelberg Catechism

LORD'S DAY 1

Q. 1. What is your only comfort, in life and
in death?

A. That I belong--body and soul, in life and in death--not to myself
but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid
for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he
protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from
my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his
Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and
ready from now on to live for him.

Q. 2. How many things must you know that you may live and
die in the blessedness of this comfort?

A. Three. First, the greatness of my sin and wretchedness. Second, how
I am freed from all my sins and their wretched consequences. Third, what gratitude I owe
to God for such redemption.

Part I

Of Man's Misery

LORD'S DAY 2

Q. 3. Where do you learn of your sin and its wretched
consequences?

A. From the law of God.

Q. 4. What does the Law of God require of us?

A. Jesus Christ teaches this in a summary of Matthew 22:37-40:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, you
shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the
prophets." (Cf. Luke 10:27.)

Q. 5. Can you keep all this perfectly?

A. No, for by nature I am prone to hate God and my neighbor.

LORD'S DAY 3

Q. 6. Did God create man evil and perverse like this?

A. No. On the contrary, God created man good and in his image, that
is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that he might rightly know God his Creator,
love him with his whole heart, and live with him in eternal blessedness, praising and
glorifying him.

Q. 7. Where, then, does this corruption of human nature
come from?

A. From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve,
in the Garden of Eden; whereby our human life is so poisoned that we are all conceived and
born in the state of sin.

Q. 8. But are we so perverted that we are altogether unable
to do good and prone to do evil?

A. Yes, unless we are born again through the Spirit of God.

LORD'S DAY 4

Q. 9. Is not God unjust in requiring of man in his Law what
he cannot do?

A. No, for God so created man that he could do it. But man, upon the
instigation of the devil, by deliberate disobedience, has cheated himself and all his
descendants out of these gifts.

Q. 10. Will God let man get by with such disobedience and
defection?

A. Certainly not, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, both
against our inborn sinfulness and our actual sins, and he will punish them according to
his righteous judgment in time and in eternity, as he has declared: "Cursed be
everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, and do
them."

Q. 11. But is God not also merciful?

A. God is indeed merciful and gracious, but he is also righteous. It
is his righteousness which requires that sin committed against the supreme majesty of God
be punished with extreme, that is, with eternal punishment of body and soul.

Part II

Of Man's Redemption

LORD'S DAY 5

Q. 12. Since, then, by the righteous judgment of God we have deserved temporal
and eternal punishment, how may we escape this punishment, come again to grace, and be
reconciled to God?

A. God wills that his righteousness be satisfied; therefore, payment
in full must be made to his righteousness, either by ourselves or by another.

Q. 13. Can we make this payment ourselves?

A. By no means. On the contrary, we increase our debt each day.

Q. 14. Can any mere creature make the payment for us?

A. No one. First of all, God does not want to punish any other
creature for man's debt. Moreover, no mere creature can bear the burden of God's eternal
wrath against sin and redeem others from it.

Q. 15. Then, what kind of mediator and redeemer must we
seek?

A. One who is a true and righteous man and yet more powerful than all
creatures, that is, one who is at the same time true God.

LORD'S DAY 6

Q. 16. Why must he be a true and righteous
man?

A. Because God's righteousness requires that man who has sinned should
make reparation for sin, but the man who is himself a sinner cannot pay for others.

Q. 17. Why must he at the same time be true God?

A. So that by the power of his divinity he might bear as a man the
burden of God's wrath, and recover for us and restore to us righteousness and life.

Q. 18. Who is this mediator who is at the same time true
God and a true and perfectly righteous man?

A. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is freely given to us for complete
redemption and righteousness.

Q. 19. Whence do you know this?

A. From the holy gospel, which God himself revealed in the beginning
in the Garden of Eden, afterward proclaimed through the holy patriarchs and prophets and
foreshadowed through the sacrifices and other rites of the Old Covenant, and finally
fulfilled through his own well-beloved Son.

LORD'S DAY 7

Q. 20. Will all men, then, be saved through Christ as they
became lst through Adam?

A. No. Only those who, by true faith, are incorporated into him and
accept all his benefits.

Q. 21. What is true faith?

A. It is not only a certain knowledge by which I accept as true all
that God has revealed to us in his Word, but also a wholehearted trust which the Holy
Spirit creates in me through the gospel, that, not only to others, but to me also God has
given the forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness and salvation, out of sheer grace
solely for the sake of Christ's saving work.

Q. 22. What, then, must a Christian believe?

A. All that is promised us in the gospel, a summary of which is taught
us in the articles of the Apostles' Creed, our universally acknowledge confession of
faith.

Q. What are these articles?

A. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy
Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and
buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended
into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty' from thence he shall
come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the
forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.

LORD'S DAY 8

Q. 24. How are these articles divided?

A. Into three parts: The first concerns God the Father and
our creation; the second, God the Son and our redemption; and
the third, God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.

Q. 25. Since there is only one Divine Being, why do you
speak of three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

A. Because God has thus revealed himself in his Word, that these three
distinct persons are the one, true, eternal God.

Of God the Father

LORD'S DAY 9

Q. 26. What do you believe when you say:
"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth"?

A. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of
nothing created heaven and earth with all that is in them, who also upholds and governs
them by his eternal counsel and providence, is for the sake of Christ his Son my God and
my Father. I trust in him so completely that I have no doubt that he will provide for me
with all things necessary for body and soul. Moreover, whatever evil he sends upon me in
this troubled life he will turn to my own good, for he is able to do it, being almighty
God, and is determined to do it, being a faithful Father.

LORD'S DAY 10

Q. 27. What do you understand by the providence of God?

A. The almighty and ever-present power of God whereby he still
upholds, as it were by his own hand, heaven and earth together with all creatures, and
rules in such a way that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and unfruitful
years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, and everything else, come
to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.

A. We learn that we are to be patient in adversity, grateful in the
midst of blessing, and to trust our faithful God and Father for the future, assured that
no creature shall separate us from his love, since all creatures are so completely in his
hand that without his will they cannot even move.

Of God the Son

LORD'S DAY 11

Q. 29. Why is the Son of God called JESUS, which means SAVIOR?

A. Because he saves us from our sins, and because salvation is to be
sought or found in no other.

Q. 30. Do those who seek their own salvation and well-being
from saints, by their own efforts, or by other means really believe in the only Savior
Jesus?

A. No. Rather, by such actions they deny Jesus, the only Savior and
Redeemer, even though they boast of belonging to him. It therefore follows that either
Jesus is not a perfect Savior, or those who receive this Savior with true faith must
possess in him all that is necessary for their salvation.

LORD'S DAY 12

Q. 31. Why is he called CHRIST, that
is, the ANOINTED ONE?

A. Because he is ordained by God the Father and anointed with the Holy
spirit to be our chief Prophet and Teacher, fully revealing to us the
secret purpose and will of God concerning our redemption; to be our only High Priest, having
redeemed us by the one sacrifice of his body and ever interceding for us with the Father;
and to be our eternal King, governing us by his Word and Spirit, and defending
and sustaining us in the redemption he has won for us.

Q. 32. But why are you called a Christian?

A. Because through faith I share in Christ and thus in his anointing,
so that I may confess his name, offer myself a living sacrifice of gratitude to him, and
fight against sin and the devil with a free and good conscience throughout this life and
hereafter rule with him in eternity over all creatures.

LORD'S DAY 13

Q. 33. Why is he called GOD'S ONLY
BEGOTTEN SON, since we also are God's children?

A. Because Christ alone is God's own eternal Son, whereas we are
accepted for his sake as children of God by grace.

Q. 34. Why do you call him OUR LORD?

A. Because, not with gold or silver but at the cost of his blood, he
has redeemed us body and soul from sin and all the dominion of the devil, and has bought
us for his very own.

LORD'S DAY 14

Q. 35. What is the meaning of: "Conceived by the Holy
Spirit, of the Virgin Mary"?

A. That the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took upon
himself our true manhood from the flesh and blood love of a Virgin Mary through the action
of the Holy Spirit, so that he might also be the true seed of David, like his fellow man
in all things, except for sin.

Q. 36. What benefit do you receive from the Holy conception
and birth of Christ?

A. That he is our Mediator, and that, in God's sight, he covers over with his innocence
and perfect holiness the sinfulness in which I have been conceived.

LORD'S DAY 15

37. What do you understand by the word
"suffered"?

A. That throughout his life on Earth, but especially at the end of it, he bore in body
soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race, so that by his suffering,
as the only expiatory sacrifice, he might redeem our body and soul from ever lasting
damnation, and might obtain for us God's grace, righteousness, and eternal life.

38. Q. Why did he suffer "under Pontius Pilate"
as his judge?

A. That he, being innocent, might be condemned by an earthly judge, and thereby set us
free from the judgment of God which, in all its severity, ought to fall upon us.

39. Q. Is there something more in his having been crucified
than if he had died some other death?

A. Yes, for by this I am sure that he took upon himself the curse which layup on me,
because the death of the cross was cursed by God.

Sorry still
under construction!

LORD'S DAY 29

Q. 78. Do the bread and wine become the very body and blood
of Christ?

A. No, for as the water in baptism is not changed into the blood of
Christ, nor becomes the washing away of sins by itself, but is only a divine sign and
confirmation of it, so also in the Lord's Supper the sacred bread does not become the body
of Christ itself, although, in accordance with the nature and usage of sacraments, it is
called the body of Christ.

Q. 79. Then why does Christ call the bread his body, and
the cup his blood, or the New Covenant in his blood, and why does the apostle Paul call
the Supper "a means of sharing" in the body and blood of Christ?

A. Christ does not speak in this way except for a strong reason. He
wishes to teach us by it that as bread and wine sustain this temporal life so his
crucified body and shed blood are the true food and drink of our souls for eternal life.
Even more, he wishes to assure us by this visible sign and pledge that we come to share in
his true body and blood through the working of the Holy Spirit as surely as we receive
with our mouth these holy tokens in remembrance of him, and that all his sufferings and
his death are our own as certainly as if we had ourselves suffered and rendered
satisfaction in our own persons.